The Maypole of Merry Mount by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Illustration to "The Maypole of Merry Mount" by Bertha C. May, 1900

Friends, readers, mirth makers of every sort, I wish you a Happy May Day!  Come, ye crew of Comus, take a few moments out of your revels and read one of my favorite short stories,   "The Maypole of Merry Mount" by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Hawthorne's dark Romanticism and evocative imagery never fail to delight me.  The tensions between grim and oppressive "civilizing" Puritanism and the suppressed undercurrent of magic, pagan, and supernatural forces allied with untamable Nature form the imaginative underpinnings of his New England stories.  "The Maypole of Merry Mount" is one of his best efforts in this vein.  Here we find the folk customs of Merrie England transplanted to New World soil: a maypole made of pine, harvest maidens fashioned with sheaves of Indian corn, bonfires, animal guizing, and the Green Man all flourish in this New England forest.

Now up with your nimble spirits, ye morrice-dancers, green men and glee-maidens, bears and wolves and horned gentlemen! Come! Enjoy a dance round the Maypole, and worry about that Puritan gentleman with the sword lurking in the shadows on the morrow.  Gather your garlands and raise a glass to the King and Queen of the May!